In order to maintain transparency and direct control on the executing agencies in the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Agency) scheme, district magistrate Sanjay Prasad has ordered for conducting a social Audit. He has also deployed about 82 officers for conducting social Audits in the rural areas. These officers have also been allotted gram panchayats where they would conduct social Audits. The officers have been instructed to conduct social...

Sarpanches in Rajasthan on an agitation against the social Audit in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), clashed with police here on Wednesday. When the agitators hurled stones and tried to march towards the State Assembly premises, police used water cannon and then resorted to lathi-charge. At least one sarpanch, who fell down while trying to escape lathi blows, sustained injuries and was admitted to hospital. About half...

A Vigyan Gram, or a science village, is to come up on the outskirts of Tripura's capital, complete with a museum, library, planetarium, botanical garden, bird sanctuary and other attractions to popularise science among the masses. The Vigyan Gram, to be modelled on the lines of science cities in various cities in India, would be set up at a cost of Rs.35 crore in western Tripura's Badharghat, a village on the...

The state government has prepared a strategy to provide 100-day job to 10 lakh most deprived families under Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in this fiscal. "These targeted 10 lakh people would include 5 lakh the most poor families and the rest, 5 lakh, would be women," Secretary Rural Development Manoj Singh said here on Sunday. He said to start with the families would be identified and their data...

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)’s ambitious plan of issuing a unique biometric-enabled number, innocuously called ‘aadhaar’, to every Indian resident has finally begun to generate a debate on citizen-State relations, privacy, financial implications, and operational practicalities. What the debate has largely missed so far, however, is the credibility of the UIDAI’s claims in the field of social policy, particularly the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and Public Distribution...